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Have You Canceled Your Hotel Stay in Arizona Because of New Immigration Law?

Where: AZ, United States
April 27, 2010 at 2:59 PM | by | Comments (3)

Poolside at the Hotel Valley Ho.

Last week, the state of Arizona enacted a severe new immigration law that aims to "identify, prosecute and deport illegal immigrants." Anyone caught without their immigration papers could be detained by law enforcement and anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant can be questioned and detained by law enforcement.

So what does this have to do with hotels? Well, it turns out several people feel so strongly about how awful this law is that they are canceling their trips to Arizona and subsequently, their hotel reservations. A luxury travel agent told us that two of their clients canceled their hotel stays specifically because they refused to pay revenue to state that would pass such a harsh law.

This could be just one example of hundreds of other cancellations going on at Arizona hotels. Indeed, USA Today has found a bunch of other businesses calling for a boycott of the law.

This is definitely not a great time for Arizona hotels to be losing out on visitors. The state's hospitality industry was hit especially hard in Phoenix and Scottsdale where the number of new hotels and new hotel rooms far outpaced the demand. When the economy collapsed in late 2008, Arizona hotels saw their RevPar crash and burn. Many hotels are in foreclosure and the industry is still weak at best.

So maybe this is something Governor Jan Brewer should think about--how the immigration law will affect Arizona businesses and tourism, ya think?

Have you canceled your hotel stay in Arizona because of the new immigration law? If so, let us know in comments below!

[Photo: Jericl]

Comments (3)

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Imposing the rule of law

I personally have no problem with a state choosing to enforce a law that the federal government doesn't care to take care of on their own. Like it or not, there is a war going on in Mexico and the way Arizona wants to deal with this is by keeping lawbreakers out of their state. No one has given them a chance to show how they are actually going to execute this law. Everyone assumes it is going to be cops patrolling the streets checking IDs. I sincerely doubt that is the case.
Seth Levy on April 28, 2010 at 1:40 AM #Permalink

Yes, conference canceled

I was scheduled to attend a conference outside of Phoenix that has been canceled due to the enactment of this law. The organizers were more than happy to move it to Santa Fe (which was more than happy to take our business).

@ Seth. So far there have been reports of US citizens being required to show not only ID but also their birth certificates. As Seth Myers said on SNL, "There is nothing more fascist than a copy saying 'Show me your papers.'" This isn't about keeping people out of their state, it's about harassing the people who are already there.

adviljunky on April 29, 2010 at 8:32 AM #Permalink

Not just yet...

Please don't boycott Arizona yet - just like prop187 in California, I believe this will be overturned before it even becomes law... which isn't for months!

I believe this will have a pretty severe reaction, and I can only hope that it'll help pave the way to a North American Union of nations from Panama to Canada - we will not be able to compete with other continental unions economically if we don't become a continent without borders.

And the craziest thing about this to me is that Mexico has an unemployment rate of 3.7% right now, ours is almost triple that... who knows, you just might want to move to Mexico for affordable housing and to open the next branch of {insert your company's name here}.

bbphx on April 29, 2010 at 11:23 AM #Permalink

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